MINI-SERIES created by John Logan. With Natalie Dormer, Daniel Zovatto, Kerry Bishé, Adriana Barraza. When a grisly murder shocks Los Angeles in 1938, Detective Tiago Vega and his partner Lewis Michener become embroiled in an epic story that reflects the troubled history of the city.
Source: Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (TV Series 2020) – IMDb
review: 9/10
With responsibility to the world.
4 July 2020
Looking at the imdb-demographics the 8-10 votes outshine the 1-3 vote 1:3. And there’s a reason for that.
This infections piece about growing up, its exuberance, its enthusiasm, its dance and song and fancy cars and swag hair and suits, its humanity right to the core, is better understood by adults and compassionates than it is easily reviled by haters and by children wanting the world to stay exactly as it is.
It does a very good job showing how seeds of fear and hatred are sown by the “same source”, and how this source works relentlessly to win over the weakest, because any army mostly need cannon fodder and compatriots, not individuals who can think for themselves. And those who CAN think, are the real opponents or allies.
They are visible in the demographics of this series. The wall builders. The communicators. And the confused, who find it hard, like the main character, to make a principle stand, which has nothing to do with customs, but everything with finding themselves and what they must learn to live with. Adults. Not good, not bad. Responsible for their beliefs.
I commend the writer – how he grew up from entertaining thrill in the first Penny Dreadful-series, albeit very good and representative of the skinny darkness of fiction (And I ADORE Eva Green!) – but this story, even if hampered by performance issues, rises way above the gothic tale that was 3 seasons of inventiveness and very well could have continued, had it not run out of myth and legend and plain need to demonstrate how any dramatic material is not really based on inspiration, but on what you wish to say in your portrayal.
The move to contemporary pain and fear and joy and passing of the moment is a bold one.
I tip my hat, sir.
